Windsurfing A Way Of Life

Finaly the Dahab winter has produced a bit of half decent wind. After a few weeks of variable condtions 2-3bft with th odd hour of 4bft and a lot of time spent infront of the computer it was finaly time to head off to the beach to sail with some sensible sized kit. Woke up this morning to see no wind but had a good breakfast in anticipation of the forecast being correct and huzzah.

I went down to the center around 10 this morning and the wind had just kicked in. Took one of the new Mistral Syncro 92's 2007 and a new North ICE 5.7 which we have rigged on 100% carbon skinny masts stuck my wetsuit on and headed off out.

Took a bit of a wobble accross the lagoon but once in the speedy it was planing all the way. Headed out through the keyhole in the Napolian reef and out into the Gulf of Aquaba. I always have to smile when i get out in the open sea its a marvelous experience. Even this time of year the flying fish are in abundance. You have to take a little bit of care with the flying fish as they don't seem to have any kind of flight control if you sail through a large group of them they fly out of the water and just seem to go everywhere gliding on the wind, its quite an experience. We are not lucky enough to get dolphins here which is a great shame I guess its just too busy on the water for them to feel comfortable.

Anyway 5.7 was a good size with the 92 the swells were very small but I had some very self satisfying rides on the the small ones that were there. There has not been so much wind here the last few weeks so the sea is quite flat. Tomorrow the forecast looks quite good, the best site for the wind here in Dahab I have found is wetteronline.de In the summer you can add about 1bft to what it says to allow for the thermal effect, anyway as long as the wind is coming from the North everything is good. If the wind swings to the South generaly it cancels out the prevailing North air flow coming down the Gulf and you end up with Lake Dahab good for frisbee, snorkling trips and general messing about on the water but appart from that its a wash out.

Anyway after a 4 hour session headed back to the center packed everything up and set off to the beach bar in the Hilton. So I grab the menu and asked for fresh orange juice, not a problem I hear you cry but hey ho they didn't have any pre squeezed juice the normal kind of 5 litre plastic conatiner so they took 20 minutes pressing fresh oranges. I have to say it was definatly worth the wait my glass of fresh orange juice was definatly as fresh as it could have been. Ordered a chicken and veg pizza washed it all down with a double cherry soda and headed back home to sit and jot down a few notes in here.

Nothing fantastic to note on my session I had a lot of fun, still struggling with shove its on flat water I have no idea how bubble, Simon and Colin pull out such high ones on flat water its all a mysteryanyway keep practicing is probably one way so I guess if its windy tomorrow I will give it all another go and try not to break my balls in the process.

Happy sailing to all

By the way if anyone is interested here is the weather for tomorrow

Region Dahab

Mo, 11.12.

Morning NO 1-2

After Mid Day NO 4 ? (Böen 60 km/h)

Evening N 3

So no posts for a few days sorry about that been a bit short of time in the evenings. Here in Dahab we have had a few great days of wind you can see the stats here . Its pretty busy right now but with strong wind all day at the moment I have been getting the chance to go out and have some fun.

Yesturday and the day before managed to get out into the swells with my Beast 84 and a 5.0 Voodoo which was great fun and today I have been playing with the new Mistral Syncro 92 2007. This board is amazing I want one of my own but in the lite weight edition they now make which weighs in nearly 1kg less than the standard model. Having said that the standard model is not heavy either.

This board is great, sails really well. I have been using it with the straps set on the outside. The board is fast, feels exciting and is a carving machine. The new channels in the deck really work and make this board feel smaller than it is when carving. Today I took it out into the swells with a 5.3 North Voodoo for a couple of hours (day off today). The swells were small but I had a lot of fun riding them on this 92 Syncro. It turns hard when you want it to and is very controlable. I gave it a full thrashing upwind to see how it behaved and then a full thrashing downwind on both points of sail it was fun and fast especially the downwind run dropping off down the swells. The nose of the board did not bury and although it was gving me an adrenaline rush it was not difficult to keep everything under control.

Now anyone who has sailed here in Dahab will know the swells are very confused and bumpy so total comfort is not easy to acheive but I have become a total fan of this board.

Stats for the Mistral Syncro 92 2007

• 92 litres
• length 245
• width 59cm
• construction carbon sandwich
• rec sail size 4.5 - 6.2
• wave fin / Powerbox 27cm

Key Features

Double concave hull deck channels for increased strength, performance and comfortswallow tail for smoother more aggresive turnsnose chine on the bottom for water redirection and control in radicla manouversKai Hopf G10 FinAnyone who is looking for a board like this must try one it is a really goof fun exciting bit of kit that feels a lot more alive than the 2006 Syncro 90 and previous models.The 102 is also amazing and really good fun but i'll write you a little about that shortly. plus update you on Manolis testing of the Joker 102The only sad thing is that the swells are so far away from the beach that its difficult to get any action shots without the use of a boat. Anyway when it quietens down a bit will try to get the guys out there with the boat and my camera to get a few pics for you all to see. So for now you will all just have to live with some close up shots of the kit.Tonight its blowing like hell outside so we hope tomorrow will be windy again Inshallah.Happy sailing, have fun and maybe see you out here in the desert sometime.PS Sorry bout my poor photoshop skills at cutting the board pics out of the complete pictures they were in the fins doesn;t really have a rough back edge etc :-)